Women and politics
By now everyone is aware of how I vote and that I have stood (and am standing again) as Labour candidate in the local elections. I like to think of myself as fairly intelligent and able to look at the world and make up my own mind on what is fair and what works for the country I live in. I have the same rights to vote as anyone else over the age of 18 in the UK and I make the most of that vote when the opportunity arises.
In case the people of Britain have been living under a rock for the last few months, you will know about the upcoming UK General Election (2015). This is taking place on 7 May and is quite interesting for a number of reasons.
For the first time we have had a set amount of time between elections, five years. This was put into law shortly after the Con-Dem coalition formed in 2010 so we have actually known the date of the election for the last five years. Also, this is the first election to have such comprehensive political debates on live television. This is not entirely new, the leaders of the three main parties held a couple of debates before the 2010 election (David Cameron - Conservatives, Nick Clegg - Lib Dems and Gordon Brown - Labour). What makes these debates so interesting is the use of other parties this time round. There is potential for all manner of coalitions after this election so the leaders of other parties (Greens, UKIP, SNP and Plaid Cymru) are also taking part.
What makes these debates even better and more interesting is that by letting some of the more minor parties have a platform along with the traditional three there are finally some women on the stage. These are very thoughtful, left-wing, intelligent women too. The Greens are fronted by the excellent Natalie Bennett, Plaid Cymru by the wonderful Leanne Wood (whose voice I could listen to all day) and the 'woman of the moment' Nicola Sturgeon for the SNP. These women are doing a fantastic job of representing their parties and policies and have really stood up and shown that they can hold their own in what has always been considered more of a 'man's world'. As stated, they are thoughtful, intelligent and worth listening to for alternative points of view and policies. I do enjoy seeing these inspirational women holding their own, but the UK press seems to be struggling with them a bit.
The clear frontrunner from the debates has to be the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon. It appears that Sturgeon has got a lot of people from England saying they would vote SNP if it were possible to do so. Many of the Party's policies appear to be more left-wing than Labour and they have some brilliant ideas about Europe, the economy and getting rid of the danger of Cameron having five more years to cock things up more. However, the press seem to be more concerned with what this brilliant lady looks like.
One point raised has been about her 'killer heels'. The lady likes shoes, so do lots of women and men too! This is not so unusual. It was questioned if her shoes were really an important point and an argument was made that they were to her so they were important to talk about, but I think this is still too much of a distraction from the real point, which is the politics.
This tweet on the Everyday Sexism account on twitter says it all: https://twitter.com/EverydaySexism/status/589008882963460096
Why is it that Sturgeon is under such close scrutiny for what she is wearing? Forget the fact that fashion trends and people change a lot in 14 years (!) there is nothing that means women should be dissected in the media like this.
I have to add that the article does come from The Daily Mail, which is notorious as being a right wing paper and the first online paper to have the 'side bar of shame'. The 'side bar of shame' is a disgusting thing where 'stories' about 'celebrities' pop up which body shame the subject as being too fat, too thin, having too much plastic surgery, wearing too many clothes, wearing not enough clothes...you can go on. The point is that the main focus is usually (though not always) women and are always derogatory. Liz Jones, the writer in question, has a back history of controversial and badly written pieces for the Daily Fail anyway so sadly this was to be expected almost.
Why is it that any paper feels the need to do this. Where is the same story but about Ed Miliband or Nigel Farage (who also took part in the opposition leaders debate held last night - 16/04/2015). Where are the comments about who wore their suit better or had the smarter hair cut, etc.? You could not get a wider separation than Miliband and Farage on policies and yet they seem to have escaped the press scrutiny on appearance. Why? It would seem, because they are men.
As a woman who is interested in politics it scares me that in 2015 we can be inclusive enough to have more opposition parties involved in a television debate but that a female representative's appearance is of more importance than what they have to say on their party's behalf on the key issues such as education, defence, immigration, housing, NHS, the economy, etc.
Let's make this the last time this happens shall we and all think about what really matters, the policies these parties want to implement and what the country will look like by the next election.
In case the people of Britain have been living under a rock for the last few months, you will know about the upcoming UK General Election (2015). This is taking place on 7 May and is quite interesting for a number of reasons.
For the first time we have had a set amount of time between elections, five years. This was put into law shortly after the Con-Dem coalition formed in 2010 so we have actually known the date of the election for the last five years. Also, this is the first election to have such comprehensive political debates on live television. This is not entirely new, the leaders of the three main parties held a couple of debates before the 2010 election (David Cameron - Conservatives, Nick Clegg - Lib Dems and Gordon Brown - Labour). What makes these debates so interesting is the use of other parties this time round. There is potential for all manner of coalitions after this election so the leaders of other parties (Greens, UKIP, SNP and Plaid Cymru) are also taking part.
What makes these debates even better and more interesting is that by letting some of the more minor parties have a platform along with the traditional three there are finally some women on the stage. These are very thoughtful, left-wing, intelligent women too. The Greens are fronted by the excellent Natalie Bennett, Plaid Cymru by the wonderful Leanne Wood (whose voice I could listen to all day) and the 'woman of the moment' Nicola Sturgeon for the SNP. These women are doing a fantastic job of representing their parties and policies and have really stood up and shown that they can hold their own in what has always been considered more of a 'man's world'. As stated, they are thoughtful, intelligent and worth listening to for alternative points of view and policies. I do enjoy seeing these inspirational women holding their own, but the UK press seems to be struggling with them a bit.
The clear frontrunner from the debates has to be the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon. It appears that Sturgeon has got a lot of people from England saying they would vote SNP if it were possible to do so. Many of the Party's policies appear to be more left-wing than Labour and they have some brilliant ideas about Europe, the economy and getting rid of the danger of Cameron having five more years to cock things up more. However, the press seem to be more concerned with what this brilliant lady looks like.
One point raised has been about her 'killer heels'. The lady likes shoes, so do lots of women and men too! This is not so unusual. It was questioned if her shoes were really an important point and an argument was made that they were to her so they were important to talk about, but I think this is still too much of a distraction from the real point, which is the politics.
This tweet on the Everyday Sexism account on twitter says it all: https://twitter.com/EverydaySexism/status/589008882963460096
Why is it that Sturgeon is under such close scrutiny for what she is wearing? Forget the fact that fashion trends and people change a lot in 14 years (!) there is nothing that means women should be dissected in the media like this.
I have to add that the article does come from The Daily Mail, which is notorious as being a right wing paper and the first online paper to have the 'side bar of shame'. The 'side bar of shame' is a disgusting thing where 'stories' about 'celebrities' pop up which body shame the subject as being too fat, too thin, having too much plastic surgery, wearing too many clothes, wearing not enough clothes...you can go on. The point is that the main focus is usually (though not always) women and are always derogatory. Liz Jones, the writer in question, has a back history of controversial and badly written pieces for the Daily Fail anyway so sadly this was to be expected almost.
Why is it that any paper feels the need to do this. Where is the same story but about Ed Miliband or Nigel Farage (who also took part in the opposition leaders debate held last night - 16/04/2015). Where are the comments about who wore their suit better or had the smarter hair cut, etc.? You could not get a wider separation than Miliband and Farage on policies and yet they seem to have escaped the press scrutiny on appearance. Why? It would seem, because they are men.
As a woman who is interested in politics it scares me that in 2015 we can be inclusive enough to have more opposition parties involved in a television debate but that a female representative's appearance is of more importance than what they have to say on their party's behalf on the key issues such as education, defence, immigration, housing, NHS, the economy, etc.
Let's make this the last time this happens shall we and all think about what really matters, the policies these parties want to implement and what the country will look like by the next election.
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